The dream came slowly at first, then faster and faster like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place. It was a little like looking through a glass bottom boat, only the players in the scene were visible. Sometimes I could see the faint tracery of leaves in the distance, or the glistening sheen of rain, but that was all.
This time it was night, and the boy and girl were silhouetted in the profile, their faces very close together. A lantern sat between their curled bodies and the faint light danced over their murmuring lips. I strained to hear them, that was the hard part, always was. Like trying to listen to a conversation through a wall with a glass.
“We can’t keep doing this,” I heard her say.
I could make out his pained expression, his downturned lips.
“They can’t keep us apart, you know we are meant to be together.”
She stares into his eyes and slowly reaches a pale hand to caress his cheek. She lets her fingers linger for a moment. “Fate, perhaps?”
His teeth glint in the lantern’s light as he smiles wide. “Only fate could conspire to gift me with such beauty and such turmoil.”
“There cannot be light without the dark.”
He leans forward, tilting his head slightly, until his lips meet hers. They stay like that for a moment, until a rustle in the trees rouses their attention.
Her eyes become alert and she pushes him away. “Quick, leave before they catch you.”
His hair falls into his eyes as he backs away, bowing deeply with a flourish, playfully. “Until we meet again.”
She watches him retreat into the woods, hears him laughing lightly, the sound like church bells chiming in the distance.
The scene begins to swirl, shifting and mixing together, like dye into water. And all at once, I’m laying with my check on my desk, where I dozed off earlier. I pull my notebook from my top drawer and flip to the next open page, scrawling down what I just saw before I forget a single detail. The notebook is almost full.
-Collins
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